


in which someone else really should've organized the guest list

by boston_sized_city



Category: An Atompunk Opera: The New Albion Guide to Analogue Consciousness - Shapera
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, M/M, Multi, Thanksgiving
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-31
Updated: 2020-10-31
Packaged: 2021-03-08 23:13:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,346
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27294736
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/boston_sized_city/pseuds/boston_sized_city
Summary: Lee should not have been given the responsibility of organizing the guest list for Thanksgiving.
Relationships: Adrian/Lee Morgan, Amber (The New Albion Guide to Analogue Consciousness) & Connor Morgan, Amber (The New Albion Guide to Analogue Consciousness)/Original Female Character, Connor Morgan & Lee Morgan, Connor Morgan/Yasser Latef (Heavily Implied), Lee Morgan/Rachael (One-Sided) (Implied)
Kudos: 1





	in which someone else really should've organized the guest list

**Author's Note:**

> hello! yes, this is a modern gtac au where I let everyone be (mostly) happy.
> 
> one very important note: i don't think it's ever outright mentioned but i want you all to know that connor and yasser are married and it's the discord (kirby)'s fault.

It was a terrible idea to put Lee in charge of organizing Thanksgiving.

On Thanksgiving day, he informed Connor that they would be having guests. Yasser already knew.

Lee waited, rather impatiently, by the front door for most of the morning. When there was finally a knock, he was quick to open it, his shoulders slumping in disappointment. "Who are you?"

The girl standing there looked about his age. She seemed nervous, her blue scarf pulled over her face and her hat pulled down. She reached up and uncovered her mouth. "Rachael. Um. Zip's friend, they invited me. Is that okay?"

"Yeah, that's great." Lee smiled, politely. He would be the first to admit that he needed more friends, and he trusted Zip enough to automatically like their friends.

Rachael smiled back at him and nodded, walking inside when Lee stepped away.  
He glanced back out the door as he went to close it, just in time to catch a glimpse of another car pulling in.

For this one he went outside, pulling his coat tight around himself as he went to the driveway.  
The window right behind the passenger's side rolled down. A glove was thrown at him, and he was quick to catch it.

And then another glove, and laughter, followed by, "Adrian, go pick those up!"

The car parked, and Lee poked his head through the open window, dropping the gloves back in Adrian's lap. "Hi, ma'am."

"Lee!" Amber smiled through the small mirror up front. "It's nice to see you again." Her voice was warm, sweet. Lee had always gotten on well with her, thankfully.

Lee smiled back brightly, and was about to say something back, when a now gloved hand reached up and patted his cheek. "You say hi to my mom before me?" Adrian complained.

"I saw you yesterday." Lee looked at him and grinned, standing up on his toes to lean further into the car and press a kiss into Adrian's hat-ruffled hair. "Where's your hat?"

"In my bag. Amber had the heat up." This was met with an annoyed cough from his mother.

From the backseat, there was another pointed cough. Zip, who Lee liked. Usually. Currently, they were making up for lost time, getting in all of their teen angst at eighteen years old before they went to college next fall. "Are we going to go inside?"

"Yes, let's all go inside, it's freezing out here." Lee faintly recognized the woman's voice-- Adrian's stepmom, he knew that. He couldn't remember her name, or the last time they'd spoken.

He stepped back to let the doors open, stuffing his hands in his pockets to warm them.  
He was almost immediately tackled into the pile of leaves behind him. The air was pushed out of his lungs, but he laughed.

Adrian held him for a moment, then pushed himself up and moved onto the grass. "I can't believe you invited us over," he said, looking at Lee.

Lee shrugged, rolling off of the leaf pile and settling against his boyfriend's side. "Thought we could use some more company."

"Sometimes you're the best kind of stupid," Adrian said. He grinned. Lee responded by tucking his face into Adrian's neck and laughing.

"They really are always like this?" The stepmother spoke again. Lee thought he really ought to learn her name, she was quite nice, and he felt rude referring to her only as 'the stepmother.'

Amber's voice was fond when she spoke. "Yes, always."

-

It seemed to be forever before they finally went inside- Though, really, it was near ten minutes.  
When they did, Lee led, careful that he could at least give some warning before his father died of a heart attack.

"Dad?" he called out. "Everyone is here!"

Connor was in the kitchen, as it turned out. He walked out of it. "Who's everyone?" he asked, because he really had been given such short notice.

Lee hesitated. And then he answered. Well, he gave the answer. It was debatable if Connor could understand it. "Well, see, I thought that we could use some more company, and Thanksgiving is the one time of year when I really don't get to see anyone, so I kind ofinvitedAdrianandhisentirefamily- Please don't be mad."

He swallowed.

Connor was silent. Then he said, "When you say entire family-"

"Oh, this place is so much cuter than the last one!" Amber's voice rang out from the foyer, and Lee winced.

When he looked back at his father, Connor's expression was somewhere between angry and nervous, his mouth set in a tight line and his eyes telling Lee that they would be having a conversation later.

Connor left to greet their guests, and Lee decided that setting the table would be a great way to escape whatever punishment he probably had coming (the worst Connor had ever done was ground him for a month, though, so his only worry was that it was much harder to escape that consequence during the holidays).

The kitchen was, for lack of kinder words, a hot mess. Lee coughed as he entered, and waved as Yasser looked up from the pan he was hunched over.

"Lee," he greeted, more of a grunt as his head hit back against the open microwave. He rubbed the back of his head and grinned.

"Hi. I want to help so Dad doesn't kill me."

For the second time, Yasser hit his head on the microwave. He reached up and closed it. "Everyone's here already?"

Lee nodded. He glanced around the kitchen once. "So is there. Um. Anything I can do?" he asked.

Yasser seemed to give it a moment of thought. "You can set the table out," he decided.

"Okay." Original plan it was, then. He climbed up on the step stool to grab plates from the cupboard, carrying them out to the dining room.

There was a knock on the wall, and Lee looked up, setting the pile on the table. Adrian beamed at him from the doorway. "Need help?"

"Please." Lee picked half of the plates up from the table and set them next to the other stack. "You can set out these ones."

Adrian finger gunned and walked over, picking up the plates and starting to set them out. "So... Your dad's taking it well," he said.

"Figured." Lee laughed, if not nervously. He was rarely ever in trouble, because he rarely ever did anything.

"Better than I thought he would, at least." Adrian shrugged, putting down the last plate. Lee still had his entire stack in his hands. "I'm going to make sure our parents don't kill each other. You gonna finish that by lunch?"

Lee grinned. "Shut up."  
Adrian smiled as he left the room.

Lee made an attempt to finish his chore, setting the last plate down as he heard another person enter the room. "Lee?"

He looked up. It was Rachael, the girl who had been invited as a plus-one. "Did you want to help?"

"Um. If there's anything..." She smiled sheepishly.

Lee nodded towards the kitchen. "Think Dad's got some stuff he needs help with in the kitchen." He smiled.

Rachael's ears colored pink. "Thank you," she said, quickly, and smiled at him before continuing into the kitchen.

-

The feast came entirely too quickly. Lee had almost been hoping the day would last a lot longer, so he could put off the inevitable mess that would come with all of them sitting at the table.

He sat between Adrian and Connor, and was near the end so he could see all the death glares their parents were giving each other.

Amber's wife- Tanya, that was her name- stood. "Who wants turkey?"

"Ooh, me," Adrian said, shoving his plate forward. He added a "please" with a wide grin as his mother glared at him.

The turkey got passed around fairly smoothly and quickly.  
Lee poked his fork onto Adrian's plate, stealing a cut piece of meat and shoving it into his mouth before it can be taken back.

"Hey, you have your own." Adrian slid his plate further away, giving him a half-hearted glare.

"But it's not as good as yours," Lee pouted, leaning forward to pull the plate back.

Adrian pushed him back by his forehead. "That doesn't make any sense, dork."

Lee grinned and ducked under his hand, moving out of his seat and kissing him sweetly.  
He picked the piece of turkey off of the plate while Adrian was distracted.

"Boys." Amber's tone was stern, but thoroughly amused. "Not at the table."

Someone laughed- Lee couldn't tell who it was, Zip, maybe. He sat back in his seat and ate the stolen turkey, glancing back to Adrian to see if he'd noticed.

He had, in fact, noticed. When Lee looked over, he stuck out his tongue and made an 'I'm watching you' gesture before turning back to what was left of his food.  
"Mom?" he said, looking back up. "Can you pass the salt?"

The evening _had_ been going well, at least.

Amber's eyes cut to Connor, and Lee could feel himself tense up. "I don't know, honey," she said coolly. "It's awfully immoral to use a person as seasoning."

"Bitch," Connor mumbled, stabbing at his meal.

Lee groaned, sliding down in his chair. "Dad."

"Really!" Amber stood up in her place, the chair being shoved back. Rachael jumped as her hands slammed on the table. "Did you outgrow your ability to take a joke?"

"I wasn't aware you knew what those were," Connor shot back.

Tanya and Rachael both looked equally confused, though Rachael seemed to be enjoying the drama more. Tanya wrinkled her nose. "Really? At the dinner table?"

Yasser, conversely, was wearing a large grin. "Oh, first time?" he quipped to Tanya, earning a dirty look from the arguing adults. He held up his hands in mock defense.

"Is it always like this here?"

Everyone turned to look at Rachael. Amber's expression softened, and she was about to say something, when her son chimed in with, "Every time those two are together."

Amber frowned, but Rachael brightened. "Awesome," she said quietly, going back to her meal.

Connor looked quite embarrassed after that, tucking into his food and essentially ignoring everyone else.

"I'm gonna... get out more rolls," Lee said, suddenly feeling very awkward in the silence. He got up, taking his plate with him, and went to eat in the kitchen.

He heard another chair scrape against the floor, and assumed Adrian was following, so he sat on the island to wait for him.

When the kitchen door opened, it wasn't Adrian. Rachael waved. "I just wanted to thank you for letting me spend Thanksgiving at your house."

"Oh. It's no problem." Lee shrugged, mouth full with stuffing. He swallowed. "Sorry about the whole mess in there."

Rachael smiled a little. "It's alright. Makes the meal more interesting."

"I guess," Lee shrugged again. He figured that it was more entertaining to someone who didn't have to deal with it so much. It probably just got to him because of how often it happened around him.

"Why did you invite them? If this happens so much?" Rachael asked after a moment. Then she frowned. "I'm sorry, that was probably out of line-"

Lee shook his head slightly. "It's fine. They're still close friends, even if those two don't get along. And it's like, if we can get them together enough to the point where they stop being so-" he struggled a bit with his words. "So _mean,_ to each other. Then it'll be better when they're actually family."

Rachael's mouth moved, like she was about to say something, maybe ask what he meant, but the door opened again and she went silent.

This time it was Adrian, who set his empty plate by the sink and sat up on the island next to Lee. "Asshole," he mumbled, and kissed his cheek, then looked at Rachael and waved.

"Oh," Rachael said, quietly. Lee was about to question it, when she said, "Thank you again for letting me stay, but I need to be getting home now. I have a curfew."

Lee blinked. "Okay," he said, and would have offered to see her out, if she hadn't left immediately after speaking.

Adrian took the plate from Lee's hands and set it to his other side, grinning at the weak protest. "If it makes you feel better about ditching, they started fighting again as soon as you were gone."

"Can't even be chill for Thanksgiving," Lee complained, leaning on his shoulder. "How do you put up with it?"

"It's kinda funny. Our parents acting younger than we are." Adrian grinned a little.  
That was true, Lee could admit. But he still hated it whenever a fight happened. Adrian nudged his shoulder, lifting his hand to comb it through the other's hair. "He'll stop if you tell him you hate it, you know that, right?"

"I don't think I matter more than his obsessive need to be right. He won't stop until he gets the last word in." Lee relaxed slightly and leaned his head into his hand.

"That's not true. You should just try and _talk_ to him, and if nothing changes, at least you're not just sitting uncomfortably in silence."

Lee looked up, and Adrian was smiling a little, though his eyes were sad. "When did you get smart?" he muttered, shoving his face into Adrian's shoulder.

He heard a small, fake gasp, and laughed. "Why do I put up with you? You're so mean." Adrian's voice was light and teasing.

"Because you love me," Lee said into his shoulder, cheerfully.

"And still have no idea why."

Lee laughed again and lifted his head, smiling softly. "You wanna go back and try to keep the peace?"

Adrian shook his head. "Five more minutes alone." He was smiling more now, but his eyes hadn't changed.

"Better plan." Lee was silently relieved he could spend a bit more time away from everyone else.

He moved to hold the other boy's hand, and squeezed it, and smiled.


End file.
